Car parking spaces and city centres are not easy bedfellows. But clever use of robotic systems is magically squeezing more cars into smaller spaces.

It couldn't be any simpler. You pull over to the side of the street and a sensor detects the card positioned in your car's windscreen. A green light indicates an available parking bay. You drive into the single-car garage, switch off, get out and push a button.

Job done. Your precious car is now being parked in any one of several hundred parking bays in a multi-storey carpark, completely automatically - by a robot.

DRIVE CAREFULLY

When you want to collect your car, you enter a PIN number in a keypad at the garage entrance. Within two minutes, one of the garage bays will display your name, and the doors will slide open to reveal your car, facing back towards the street.

This is the Modular Automated Parking System, or MAPS for short. Designed by Robotic Parking Systems - a US company - MAPS is the solution to city parking.

The very first mechanical garage began operation in Cincinnati in 1932. It used a converted elevator system to hoist individual cars from a central receiving area to one of its 24 floors. Once there, an attendant pushed it into a space. Capable of accommodating nearly 400 cars, it operated every day until it closed in 1979.

COMPUTER CONTROL

Based on the same idea, MAPS is a considerable improvement. At its heart are the robotic steel carriers that transport the car to and from the parking space.

The single-car garage is in fact an arrival station. Whereas the walls and ceiling are fixtures, the floor upon which the car is parked is a moveable steel pallet.

As the driver presses the start button, the central computer guides a carrier on steel rails along an open aisle-way to the arrival station. A rack entry module, a little like a fork lift, extends from the carrier beneath the pallet. The car and pallet are then transferred to the carrier. Under the guidance of the computer, the carrier transports the car to a lift. The lift ascends to the designated parking level.

INDEPENDENT BOTS

When the lift arrives, the pallet and car are transferred to another carrier. This transports both to the correct parking slot.

Finally, the rack entry module slides the pallet and car into the slot, then it retracts back into the carrier, ready for its next job.

Each of the robotic carriers operates independently. There are two powerful servo motors on each axis of motion. In the event of a failure, the system can still operate with a single motor on each axis. Sensors, linked back to the central computer, monitor the positioning of every pallet, carrier and lift.

The system allows as many cars as there are robots to be moved simultaneously. The result is reliability and speed of transactions.

A GREEN MACHINE

It's a flexible system as well. The idea is that Robotic Parking will design a car park for a specific space. Where space is extremely limited, the RPS 20 accommodates as little as 10 cars in a 3 x 18.2 x 25.9m or 7.6 x 6.4 x 25.9m lot. At the other end of the scale, the gigantic RPS 1000 will accommodate from between 200 to over 5000 cars.

The Hoboken Garden Street Garage in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA, is an example of the mid-range RPS 100 model. The 30.4 x 30.4 x 17m lot would park 90 cars if constructed with conventional ramps. The robotic version accommodates an incredible 312 cars.

Not only does it save significant space but, because the cars are moved around without their engines running, both sound pollution and engine emissions are cut to zero.

And, as members of the public are not allowed inside the car park, vandalism of cars and theft are also welcome victims.

Picture 1 (See Above)

This US$6.2 million car park was opened in October 2002 in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA. It accommodates 312 cars in exactly the same space a conventional car park could house just 90.

Picture 2 (See Above)

Having positioned your car in the open bay, you get out and push a button to initiate the parking process.

Picture 3 (See Above)

The robots move the cars throughout the 312-position, 7-storey garage.

Picture 4 (See Above)

The Hoboken car park has 35 independently operating robots. Each robot transports a car from the entrance bay into an open parking bay, automatically.

You can get all the robo details at robopark.com.